The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-06-11
THE NE1GHBoR FROM THE FLAT
Dakota Bell,l

IldUlt OA CuttlllS dCIOSS d HclS uuOi . back yard and coming out on Eleventh street. The other day new family moved into the house in connection with that yard. They had been living for the last year or so out on Alkali Flat and were formerly from up near Last Fork, OH Snake Creek.
 MT. Dollinger started down town in something of hurry the next morn- ing after they moved in. He was scarcely out of his own house and was trying to think whether the spool of thread Mrs. Dollinger told him to get was to be black or white and was tear ing along across the back yard of his new neighbor when he suddenly saw a wire clothes-line about six inches be- fore his eyes. Naturally MT. Dollin- ger lodged and winked and as he straightened up he saw large, black haired woman standing in the back door. Just about this time she fioun- ced into the house and before MT. Doll finger could take half a dozen steps a tall, raw boned man, without any hat on came out and said:
 "Hi, there, mister! Jes' stop right whar ye be-"
 What's wanted?" said Mr. Dollin- ger very politely.
 "What's wanted, hey! what's wanted I'll show ye what's wanted Wot business ye got sneakin' round back O my ranch a-bowin' an winkin' at my wife when ye don't know her rum side O so'-leather!'
 There's a mistake somewhere, my friend, didn't"
 No, ye didn't, oh, no, ye didn't nothin'!'' howled the man as he shook his fist and got down off the steps, as his wife appeared at the door. "Meb- by ye got q notion that Sary,d lie bout it! How is it, Sary, don't stan thar like doggoned fool!'
 Don't ye call me fool, Jim, UT I'll mop ye! Cors' he bowed at me an' winked too, an yell lick him, too, eff we're man an' think anything uv yer wife"
 "Ju hear that, ye blame little coyote. Hear wot Sary says! l reckon ye think cause ye live ill town an we're rum the country that ye can run on us an insult us, but l low I'll show vel
 Then he began to take long steps in the direction of Mir. Dollinger and that gentleman concluded that it was time to go.
 "Ye'd better gitw yelled the man from Alkali Flat.
 Lam him good an hard, Jim." called the woman from the back steps.
 Mir. Dollinger tore away through the back yards and across the alleys with the raw -boned stranger close be- hind. The first clothes line he en- countered broke, but the second caught him just across the watch-pocket and he went over and lost his hat and tore his cOat-sleeve on an ash barrel.
 "Lemmy at him onct. Lemmy at him an I'll eat him!" and he kicked MT, Dollingcr's hat up over the house.
 MT. Dollinger never knew that he could run so fast before.
 But he couldn't gain an inch on that raw -boned man from Alkali Flat.
 He lodged around among wood piles and pumps, and clothes-r reels and cur rant bushes. He also jumped high board fences and fell through barbed- wire fences.
 And that square -cornered, red headed, low browed man from the Flat jumped little higher and fell a little harder.
 Once he ran too near a COW tied to a post and she put down her head and said ''ba-r-r-r" and ran her tongue out and MT. Dollinger fell head first against the barn and then crawled under, He was good deal smaller than his pursuer and crawled under where he couldn't reach him.
 But this didn't hinder that big ,loose- jointed public nuisance from Alkali Flat from getting a pitchfork out of the barn and reaching under and jab- ping MT. Dollinger in the legs for fully half an hour.
 And at last when he did stop and go blck, his wife, who was sitting on the back steps, s,id:
 Didn't get him, hey? Jim, eff I'd knowcd ye didn't hey no more sperit than that I'd never 'a' married vel! Pears 'sif I'd got to do my own tightin' when I'm insultcd. Wish I'd married Ike Bukker- he'd "a burnt the barn down an got the ornery pup out! hoped we'd git inter refined neigh borhood, but Iguess it's gotter be war. If the wife O that man ye couldn't catch don't call on ne an offer to lend me her fiat-irons am act neighborly, I'm blamed eff don't go over am tell her wot think nv her"
 Moxie Likely to Become the National